Date: November 1, 1927
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Original document available here)
I am advised that Commissioner Hall is contemplating resigning from the Interstate Commerce Commission, but no time has been set for his retirement, nor has he definitely resigned. He has expressed a desire to retire.
Senator Curtis was speaking to me yesterday about some of his constituents that might be available for possible appointments to places on various commissions. Nothing especially definite.
I am announcing today the appointment of the American delegates to the Pan American Conference that is to take place in Havana – I think it assembles on the 16th of January. I have had a list of those prepared and they will be given out when you leave. Mr. Hughes will be Chairman, and the other members will be Ambassador Fletcher, Senator Underwood, Ambassador Morrow, ex-Senator O’Brien of New York, James Brown Scott, Dr. Wilbur, President of Leland-Stanford, and Dr. Rowe, at Washington, and there will be added to that the Cuban Ambassador.
I am advised by the War Dept. that Mr. Quezon and Mr. Osmena have requested an appointment, and I am to see them just as soon as they wish to come in. Secretary Davis says that the son of Mr. Quezon, who I think is attending Cornell University, is ill and Mr. Quezon happens to be with him, as I understood him, so I am not sure just when it will be convenient for him to come in. But I have instructed the Secretary of War to advise them that I shall be glad to see them any time they wish to come. I should expect they could come tomorrow or next day.
I haven’t made any arrangements for the 11th of November, which is Armistice Day, so that I don’t know whether I shall go to Arlington on that day or not. That will be the time when there will be unveiled over there a Canadian Memorial to citizens of the United States that served with the Canadian force.
Nothing especially new has developed regarding the Mississippi flood area and its needs that hasn’t already been known. Secretary Davis has just returned from that section and tell s me that the work of closing the crevasses is proceeding, that the work will be finished in ample time, that the barge line on the upper Mississippi is under way and is apparently starting out successfully. There is a good deal of interest in it and it is very much appreciated by the people up and down that section of the river.
I didn’t happen to see the article by Secretary Jardine relative to the farm situation, so I am not able to comment on it. He is a very well informed man and anything he might say would be entitled to the most careful consideration.
There have been no decisions relative to appointments.
I am not informed about the plan for merging traction companies in Washington. We have now a board here of Public Utilities, created especially to make studies of questions of that kind, and I should expect to be guided very largely by their advice. I don’t mean that it would be absolutely controlling, but I should pay a great deal of attention to it. The only thing that I can say in relation to it would be the result of my knowledge of street railway situation in Boston,
there was almost a complete unity of ownership. One there is able to go into the subway and ride there, ride on the surface, and go up and ride on the elevated structure, all on one fare. I don’t know now but there have been some “changes, but that was the old method there. It is not necessary to get any transfer tickets, or to pay any new fares, or anything of that kind. Now, it may be that the situation here would be helped in that respect, by unification of ownership. But I don’t know enough about the conditions or the facts or the ownership of the traction companies here, so that I would want to express any opinion relative to it.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge: Remarks by the President to Newspaper Correspondents
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